Skyboat Media is proud to present THE LOWER POWER, the latest novel by Michele W. Miller!
THE LOWER POWER has it all: social history, a supernatural drug-dealing entity, a fast-paced and thrilling plot, an eclectic and lovable found family, and a caring but no-holds-barred depiction of addiction and recovery. Miller’s fourth novel takes place in 1992 in the crack-addled streets of New York City, where we find Raven and Keith, two former drug addicts working hard to stay sober despite the terrifying dreams sweeping through minds of addicts — dreams that feature a mysterious dealer named BG whose mysterious new strain of drugs has been creating “zombies” all over the city.
Michele W. Miller (who also writes as Michele Weinstat Miller), has lived in New York for most of her life (Harlem and Washington Heights), and she has used that setting for most of her novels. Aside from her writing, she is the former chief government ethics prosecutor for NYC, and now she serves as General Counsel for a non-profit agency that provides re-entry services to the formerly incarcerated. Having overcome addiction, homelessness, and incarceration herself, Miller’s career and point of view in her writing have earned her the accolades of “Best of 2019” by Strand Magazine; Outstanding August 2021 Mystery & Suspense title by Library Journal; and semi-finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards.
Who else could we pair with the author Kirkus Reviews has called “Mary Higgins Clark with teeth” than Audie award-winning, Golden Voice Bahni Turpin and the velvet glove director Gabrielle de Cuir? Having worked together on the 2010 FICTION and DISTINGUISHED ACHIEVEMENT IN PRODUCTION Audie award winner, THE HELP, and on numerous other titles, we were so excited have them back together again! Bahni returned Skyboat to deliver an electric performance of Miller’s thriller, bringing the diverse found family of THE LOWER POWER to life with acute sensitivity.
But this wasn’t only a reunion for Gabrielle and Bahni! Gabrielle has actually narrated two of Miller’s other novels: THE THIRTEENTH STEP: ZOMBIE RECOVERY in 2014, and more recently read Miller’s GONE BY MORNING. Similarly placed in New York, each of Miller’s novels recorded here at Skyboat gave Gabrielle and Bahni the chance to flex their accent skills and to create a vibrant, gritty audio depiction of the city that never sleeps.
When Michele brought THE LOWER POWER to Skyboat, we jumped at the chance to once again bring her words to your ears. You won’t want to miss out on this fast-paced quasi-zombie novel, with an honest, direct look at the horrors and daily struggles of sobriety and addiction.
“Consistently thrilling and immersive, the novel’s action plays out over the span of several weeks as elements of danger, horror, and drug-fueled violence keep things moving at a frenetic pace…A gritty, action-packed thriller anchored by a heroic duo worth cheering for.” — Kirkus Reviews (Praise for THE LOWER POWER)
Listen to a sample on our SoundCloud:
THE LOWER POWER by Michele W. Miller
Read by Bahni Turpin
When Evil Pulls You Back To The Hell You Thought You’d Escaped.
From critically acclaimed Michele W. Miller comes a “superbly written tale of urban survivors fighting to save themselves once more” (Publishers Weekly).
As New York City’s crack epidemic rages, Raven has overcome her addiction and will soon begin law school. But night terrors begin to haunt her and her friends. Many of them return to drug use, disappear, or commit bizarre acts of violence. A mysterious new drug epidemic grips the city, while police corruption, a U.S. attorney campaigning for mayor, and riots hamstring the city’s defense. Raven and her friends—along with a journalist trying to help a teenage prostitute—must stand up to the sadistic man behind the chaos or lose all they’ve gained. Yet, as recovering addicts, they are the most vulnerable to his inexplicably attractive powers.
A gripping reimagining of the early 1990s, The Lower Power combines supernatural suspense and social history for fans of Whitley Strieber’s The Wolfen and Gabino Iglesias’s The Devil Takes You Home.
